Slideshow
SMOOTH TALK
Introduced by director Joyce Chopra
Sunday, November 20
7:00
Following the event, writer/director Joyce Chopra will sign copies of her new book, Lady Director: Adventures in Hollywood, Television and Beyond (City Lights), available for purchase at our concession.
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“Laura Dern plays a fifteen-year-old California high-school student named Connie, who, during summer vacation, pushes the limits of parental constraints while flirtatiously seeking the attention of older boys. Connie’s conflicts with her mother (Mary Kay Place) and her older sister (Elizabeth Berridge) make life outside the household all the more alluring. Then a thirtysomething man (Treat Williams) notices Connie in town, spies on her, and preys on her with a terrifying blend of suavity and menace. Dern’s fiercely thoughtful stillness, matched by the tremulous empathy of Chopra’s direction, brings out Connie’s ardent yet wary curiosity and frozen panic alike. Chopra films Connie’s rambles with friends in a shopping mall and at the movies with an apprehensive hush as the danger of male aggression grows nearer.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Joyce Chopra has produced and directed a wide range of award-winning films, ranging from SMOOTH TALK, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic Feature at the Sundance Film Festival, to the A&E thriller THE LADY IN QUESTION with Gene Wilder. She has received American Film Festival Blue Ribbon and Cine Golden Eagle Awards for her numerous documentaries, including THAT OUR CHILDREN WILL NOT DIE, about primary health care in Nigeria, and the autobiographical JOYCE AT 34, which is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. She is the author of the new memoir called Lady Director: Adventures in Hollywood, Television, and Beyond. She lives in Charlottesville, VA.
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